Lackland ends practice of intubating ferrets

The Pentagon has scaled down its controversial use of live animals in training, but the practice will not end completely, and one program in San Antonio will continue to use live goats.

A Defense Department directive will eliminate animals in a variety of programs that include the training of obstetrics and gynecology residents, registered nurse anesthetist residents and staff, doctors and nurses learning about neonatal resuscitation, and advanced trauma life support.

The edict requires that mannequins, virtual training simulators, actors or cadavers be used where possible by Jan. 1.

Air Force officials at Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center said they stopped using ferrets six months ago.

But the order won’t affect a program at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston. Combat medics preparing to go to war train with anesthetized goats in that program, which has been in place for years and is done at Fort Hood and other posts.

“Comprehensive combat medical training is absolutely necessary to prevent significant loss of life because the combat medic is the first responder who provides treatment to an injured service member or civilian,” said Phil Reidinger, a spokesman for the Army Medical Department Center and School. “The experience gained from training with the live-animal model gives the war fighter the confidence and knowledge needed to treat combat trauma injuries.”

The order to phase out some animal testing has been in the works for years. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has long pressured the military to quit using goats, ferrets and other animals in its medical training programs.

The group said nearly 34,000 people have sent emails to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland urging that the Air Force use “superior, nonanimal intubation training methods” in its program.

“We’re pleased that Lackland officials are taking action, as they have long been aware of numerous medical studies that show that using simulation technology for intubation training teaches this lifesaving skill as well as or better than using live animals,” said Justin Goodman, director of PETA's laboratory investigations department.

He listed specialties that could use the mannequins in place of animals, noting in a memo in May that “we must make progress towards the standardization, refinement, replacement and reduction of our use of the live-animal model.”

Wilford Hall trains medical professionals to place tubes in human patients. The ferret intubation program ended after the facility’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee chose to use sophisticated mannequins.

The panel began its review knowing “there might very well be a mandated cessation of the use of ferrets,” Wilford Hall spokesman Joe Bela said.

The program’s 16 surviving ferrets are given free run of two large animal housing rooms, their choice of feed, as well as climbing and tunneling apparatuses. Their rooms are cleaned twice a day, and veterinary technologists do routine health checks.

All of them are elderly, but none has died since the intubation training program ended, Bela said.

Goodman said PETA “applauds Lackland and the DOD for reducing animal use significantly and will continue to press the military to stop all shooting, dismembering, burning and killing of animals in archaic combat trauma drills.”

But Reidinger said 86 percent of troops die where they fall and that the training for combat medics, nurses, physicians and physicians’ assistants is crucial.

“Simulation technology is not mature enough to replace the animal model, and at this time no simulation technology has been validated for combat trauma procedures,” he said.

Sig Christenson covers the military for the San Antonio Express-News and been with the paper since 1997. He was embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and has reported from Baghdad and Afghanistan seven times since.

A Houston native, he covered the Branch Davidian siege, the 1994 Pensacola abortion clinic shooting, the 2003 space shuttle breakup over Texas, the 2009 Fort Hood shooting and its subsequent legal proceedings, as well as hurricanes, tropical storms and floods since 1986, among them Rita and Katrina and Maria.

Some of his projects include “Witness to War,” a special section recounting the invasion and early occupation of Iraq, and “The Only Retreat,” a three-part series detailing the only U.S. defeat during the invasion.

He’s won awards from Hearst Newspapers and the Associated Press, including Texas APME’s Specialties Reporting category in 2008, and was named “Reporter of the Year” by his peers in 2004.

A graduate of the University of Houston, he is a co-founder, former president and former board member of Military Reporters & Editors, established in 2002.

For a look at his work over time, see www.sigchristenson.com E-mail Sig at saddamscribe@yahoo.com